The Alphaville Herald

SLCC 2011 Drama!!! Avatar Identity: Privacy and Transparency in Social Media

by Pixeleen Mistral on 20/09/11 at 3:31 am

Mysterious threats leads to last minute SLCC program revision - a pattern of harassment?

The first indication I would be playing another round of Second Life as a real life alternative reality game came a few hours before the SLCC 2011 panel discussion on Avatar Identity: Privacy and Transparency in Social Media.

I was eating lunch, sitting next to Brent Baum and comparing notes on the SLCC experience. I'll have much more to say about Brent's surprising adventures soon - his impressive background in the entertainment business and abruptly terminated one year tenure in SL provide a fascinating perspective on Second Life. Our conversation was interrupted by news that there was a change in plans for the Avatar Identity panel discussion. Apparently the conference organizers had yielded to pressure by a party who they would not name. The panel discussion would not be streamed into Second Life as originally planned and there were issues with my biography, although it had been published at the SLCC site weeks ago.

Oh noes! More bad luck for the long-suffering SL players!!! Maybe Second Life isn't very good for attending meetings after all. Is this why Rod Humble can't seem to significantly improve player concurrency?

The bearer of bad tidings consoled me with the promise that the session would be taped and posted sometime after the conference. Last week, the discussion deemed potentially too controversial to air live in SL was made available here. 

Before I go on, I'd like to thank the conference organizers for running an interesting event overall. I'd like to think that despite the slightly surreal drama, the panel discussion is an example of how to make the SLCC a bit more than a fanboy convention. At the same time, I sincerely hope the SLCC leadership will take steps to insulate themselves from the pressure to produce a hopelessly gimped pablum program unable to discuss the real issues and concerns of the SL community for fear of controversy or offending the game gods. For starters, perhaps a blanket disclaimer stating any opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the organizers is in order. 

Last minute revisions to the SLCC program

While the panel discussion spanned everything from google-bombing internet kooks, the notorious Evangeline from TSO, avatar identities, pseudonyms, brands, and business opportunities for enhanced online privacy, I didn't think to mention the need for secrecy for those filing complaints about speaker biographies during the discussion. I'll know better next time.

Despite publishing verbatim the biography I sent on the SLCC web site weeks earlier, by the day of the conference panel, a badly nerfed version was on display at the site. It also seemed that pages 25 and 26 had been cut out of the printed conference programs by hand, and an unbound page with a revised version of the nerfed pages inserted. How much did that cost?

What sort of horrific typo - or threat - could have led to the bowdlerization re-working of the conference program at the last minute? Here is my bio as originally posted:

Pixeleen Mistral is the managing editor of the Alphaville Herald (http://alphavilleherald.com/), where she covers online culture and governance, griefing, vigilantes, and hactivism. Ms. Mistral began writing for the Herald sports desk in 2006 and became managing editor late that year.

Pixeleen's real life typist has been involved in developing Internet technologies for over 20 years, including early e-mail clients, Internet Gopher - one of the first popular Internet information systems, the IETF standard for URLs, and Croquet - an open-source peer-to-peer virtual world. In February of 2010, Mark McCahill sacrificed his Pixeleen Mistral pseudonym to fight an outrageous takedown notice filed by 'Justice League Unlimited' vigilante Kalel Venkman - a move that thwarted Venkman's abuse of the DMCA process to remove Herald coverage of his gang's massive Second Life player surveillance database.

and here is the last-minute revision to my bio:

Pixeleen Mistral is the managing editor of the Alphaville Herald (http://alphavilleherald.com/), where she covers online culture and governance, griefing, vigilantes, and hactivism. Ms. Mistral began writing for the Herald sports desk in 2006 and became managing editor late that year.

Pixeleen's real life typist has been involved in developing Internet technologies for over 20 years, including early e-mail clients, Internet Gopher - one of the first popular Internet information systems, the IETF standard for URLs, and Croquet - an open-source peer-to-peer virtual world.
   

snip snip snip - someone had to cut page 25/26 out of each copy of the printed program

an unbound replacement page was inserted into the program for the missing pages 25 and 26

Has the JLU's game leveled up to more RL harassment?

Normally, I'd let this sort Internet ankle-biter harassment slide, but after the latest series of leaks from Kalel Venkman's JLU wiki, I'm starting to think the role-play super hero group is having an increasingly difficult time restraining their child-like excitement and are unable to keep the gameplay - or is it harassment? - inside Second Life. 

If we can believe the leaks the have emerged from the Justice League Unlimited's wiki over the last few weeks, it seems Kalel and the gang have been trolling Linden Lab's PR honcho Pete Linden with off-the-record chats, hoping to build a case that the Herald is a menace to Second Life society. To date, my attempts to solicit comment from Pete Linden on the matter have been met with silence - even after I sweetened the pot and offered Pete the opportunity to pose for the Herald's Post-6 feature. I assume Pete is still skin shopping and will let me know when he is ready.

Is JLU grooming Linden Lab public relations lead Pete Linden?

Second Life - where self-described "psychotic superhero bullies" ponder stalking your real life

Even stranger is news that Venkman's online militia was discussing contacting my workplace back in April with claims that I violated copyright laws in the Herald coverage of the JLU activities. As far as I know, the role play superheros never followed up on that discussion, or if they did the claims were greeted with a swift and well-deserved trip to the trash bin. 

This is just as well. The cognitive dissonance in the JLU players faux-copyright complaints are overwhelming. Last year - apparently ignorant of the copyright law fair use doctrine - JLU leader Kalel Venkman launched a Digital Millenium Copyright Act takedown against the Herald, but then failed to followup and file an actual copyright infringement complaint after he was given my real life contact information. In light of this I'm a bit surprised that Kalel's group wants to even discuss playing the copyright card again. Kalel Venkman has refused to respond to repeated attempts to contact him for an on-the-record conversation about these matters. The un-censored copy of the alleged leak I was provided with is a real eye-opener.

[17:35] Samantha Lowell: I can have a draft of a polite, oh so sweet letter of
concern to Duke as soon as possible
[17:36] GreenLantern Excelsior: Duke?
[17:36] Melanippe Karas: I thought we'd settled the idea of writing to Duke weeks
ago.
[17:36] Samantha Lowell: I thought we could write the adjunct in question,
explain that Alphavillle Hertald is using his name and asking if this is true
[17:36] Samantha Lowell: "Thank you so much for your time," etc etc
[17:36] Samantha Lowell: Very poite, brief and genteel
[17:37] Jeremiah Pintens: TD here is lower than I am used to
[17:37] Kalel Venkman: It would settle the issue - or give us ammunition, one of
the two.
[17:37] Samantha Lowell: Amen
[17:37] Kara Timtam: Or he could lie through his teeth
[17:37] Samantha Lowell: And , if it's NOT true, it would set him against Ludlow
[17:37] Kalel Venkman: If he lies, then we can take that letter and post it.
[17:37] BilliAnn Bravin: Either way sounds useful, though there is that.
[17:37] Samantha Lowell: Believe me, nobody does childish cat fighting like
academics
[17:37] Jeremiah Pintens: *laughs*
[17:37] Kalel Venkman: If it's the truth, then we can escalate to his employers.
[17:37] BilliAnn Bravin: Hee hee
[17:37] BilliAnn Bravin: They are terrible.
[17:38] Samantha Lowell: Amen, billi
[17:38] Kara Timtam: But busting a whopper like that could be important,
certainly if that guy has indeed been spoofed
[17:38] Kalel Venkman: One way or the other, it's ammunition.
[17:38] Melanippe Karas: Yes.
[17:38] Kalel Venkman: And we can use it.
[17:38] Kalel Venkman: No matter what he says.
[17:38] Samantha Lowell: I finished the textures for the poster vendor. I'd like
to set up my mini photo studio on the top floor of the adventurer's club, if it's
okay
[17:38] Kalel Venkman: And telling us nothing is nearly as useful, especially if
we send it registered mail.
[17:39] Samantha Lowell: Return receipt
[17:39] Kalel Venkman: Exactly.
[17:39] Melanippe Karas: Good idea.
[17:39] Kalel Venkman: We could actually get some mileage out of this.
[17:39] BilliAnn Bravin: Yes.
[17:39] Samantha Lowell: I need you to email me the full name, I believe I have
the correct address
[17:39] Jeremiah Pintens: I've a question actually - not related to the
discussion at hand
[17:39] Samantha Lowell: Send a copy to his dean , mayhap?
[17:40] Kalel Venkman: Michael P. McCahill. It should be send to the IT
department at Duke, which is where he works as a contracting consultant.
[17:40] Kalel Venkman: Sorry - that's Mark P. McCahill.
[17:40] Kalel Venkman: Sending a copy to the head of Duke University IT would
probably be a good idea too.
[17:40] Samantha Lowell: Yes indeed
[17:41] BilliAnn Bravin: Oh yes.
[17:41] Kara Timtam: Include full documentation of the URL's where the claim of
identity is made.
[17:41] Kalel Venkman: He's left a thread dangling in easy reach. Let's pull on
it and see what unravels.
[17:41] Kara Timtam: Herald and Wikipeda
[17:41] Samantha Lowell: "I thought you should be apprised of this, given the
fact that the staff and contributors of the Herald have violated the DMCA and
copyright laws of the US on several occasions, etc etc..."
[17:41] Melanippe Karas: Psychotic superhero bullies for the win!
[17:41] Melanippe KarasMelanippe Karas grins ironically
 

Who could have imagined that Second Life would morph into a long-running real life augmented reality game so easily? How large is the market for cartoon stalkers playing dirty tricks on those they dislike in the name of justice unlimited? Linden Lab might want to carefully consider what sort of picture this paints to the general public if they hope to grow their online community.